Alexis Papachelas, probably Greece’s best informed political analyst, has told SKAI News that he thinks “an agreement is very close, very near.”

“There is a detectable shift in stance. Under pressure lenders have retreated on several issues,” Syriza’s prominent MEP, Dimitris Papadimoulis told the Guardian.

“We are beginning to see that differences are bridgeable, that an agreement will be reached.”

Echoing the German chancellor Angela Merkel, insiders in the leftist led Syriza government said it was vital that Greece cut a deal with the bodies keeping it afloat before markets opened on Monday.

The optimism – the first real sign of a thaw in relations between Athens and its creditors at the EU, ECB and IMF – followed extraordinary scenes of brinkmanship in Brussels and outbursts of fury in Athens

Greek anti-capitalists vow to fight new deal

Helena Smith

Over in Athens, Greeks who are far to the left of the ruling Syriza party, have pledged to step up protests against the government over concessions it appears willing to make to cut a deal. Some of the thousands who marched through the streets of Athens tonight belong to the ultra radical anti-capitalist Antarsia group, a collection of far far left groups that make Syriza look centrist. Holding banners demanding that Greece leaves the European Union and writes off its monument debt, protestors gathered at Athens university campus before marching on parliament.

Protesters carry placards that read “Stop to new and old bailouts” during an anti-bailout demonstration in Athens tonight. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The radicals, who are gaining in popularity and may well prove to be a headache for the government, have pledged to step up protests and strikes in the event that Tsipras reaches a deal with the EU, ECB and IMF that they have already denounced as a “new memorandum.” Seamen aligned with the group have announced they will go on strike on Tuesday and said they will bring all ships/ferries to a grinding halt on the 1 and 2nd of July. If a deal is reached, activists say they want to stop it being brought before the 300-seat House where creditors have demanded it be ratified. “If it is signed and passed by parliament we will stage protests and strikes to ensure it is not put into effect,” Stamatis Hadzidimou, an activist with the socialist workers’ party, told me.

“If it is not passed and the country goes bust, we will also stage protests and strikes to ensure that capitalists don’t start closing enterprises and laying off people. There is going to be unrest.”

A protest of the Greek Communist Party hangs on the facade of the University of Athens, Greece June 25, 2015 Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The last hours have been really critical, but I have a good hunch that unlike in Sophocles’ tragedies, this Greek story will have a happy ending.

But right now, Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem sounds downbeat. Here’s his statement:

The Eurogroup has finished.

The institutions informed us about their intensive negotiations with the Greek government. We agreed that they will do an assessment of the last Greek proposals, because they came in very late today, just before the Eurogroup meeting.

The institutions informed us that on a number of issues there is still a wide gap with the Greek authorities. In the meantime, the door is still open for the Greek authorities to accept the proposals tabled by the institutions.

Now, I will inform the Heads of State or Government on the state of play. The Eurogroup will probably reconvene on Saturday to take stock of the situation.

My dad had a Ford Cortina back in the 1980s which was perennially in the garage having something or other done to it in an attempt cure one of its many ailments, yet while it chugged along, stalled and broke down on many times it did so on fewer occasions than Greece’s current debt bailout talks.

And as European leaders headed in and out of yet another summit it seems that deal is looking as far away as ever.

Greek debt crisis: the 20 key moments

If you look carefully at photos from today’s European Council summit you can see that the leaders are wearing little pins.

They’re the pinnacle of an extremely complicated hierarchy that determine who can go where on these occasions.

My colleagues Alberto Nardelli and George Arnett explain:

If you’re lucky enough to have gold, and thus access to the 80th floor, there’s the VIP dinner – one feature of which is that there is no note-taking. A tighter confidentiality regime applies on this floor of the building, and this is where, on Thursday evening, Cameron will lay out his plans for renegotiating the terms of Britain’s membership of the EU.

Ambassadors and their “antici” (jargon for powerful assistant and scribe) have red badges. One peculiarity of the Euco system is that note-taking during meetings often takes place in a separate room.

A level below these are the blue and grey badges used by delegation members and admin personnel. They spend most of their time on the “50th floor”, which includes meeting rooms, delegation rooms and the presidency room.

After that it gets more complicated. Alongside the regular badges each country delegation also gets a number of floaters. These work like the “power-up mushroom” in Super Mario Bros: participants with a floater are temporarily of bigger status until the floater is taken away from them.....